Newbie wih MAJOR Rectocele issues

HI Ethans Mum,
Welcome--so glad you have found WW! Great that you have the book and DVD on the way. You'll also find lots of info here which is so helpful.
Few thoughts.
First, 5 months is still very early for anyone to suggest surgery. the experience of a lot of women here is that things don't improve very much for the first few months PP, and then around 6 months it starts improving and continues for the next year or two or beyond...so hang in there--it will get better! (btw, in the UK they won't even reassess you for at least a year PP, and then not till you stop breastfeeding, though i can't say that made any difference to my POP, but basically they wait quite a while knowing a ton changes PP). also your body will tighten up a lot with the WW posture and the excercises.

i have all the POP, but the rectocele is my most symptomatic, so i completely sympathise. The BM thing is so annoying, but through trial and error I am finding ways of improving it. First on the DVD you'll see about nauli and firebreathing--so helpful, and great to do few times a day (plus all the excercises are great--but doing these a few times a day is very doable and helps a lot).

re food, cutting out junk and red meat is great, but you may need to do a bit more to get all moving. I found that I have to cut out all dairy except yogurt for starters. even then, like you, everything moves down but doesn't go anywhere, especially in the afternoon. some people recommend warm water with lemon juice in it first thing in the morning to get things moving. you could try that. also warm drinks are better than cold. a thermos of warm water at night helps some people, especially if you are up nursing you can sip warm water then.
i find that pulses are the key, and have to eat a lot. i cut out grains a few months ago (though am now eating a bit) and in the process started eating pulses for breakfast, ie black beans or lately lentils. that is very helpful. add to that some beans for lunch like a hearty stew. i also eat a lot of fibre--i aim for 40g a day, with lots of raw veg and fruit.
hydrated prunes are great (ie tinned ones, or stew some plums)
also exercise is important--good walks during the day can help.

christine talks about magnesium, and recently recommended i try it as i never have. so i'm taking that, and i can say that something is working (hurray!) as it is less of a problem. it's either the lentils in the morning (bland, but i'm willing to do it) or the magnesium, but i think both together. so worth trying magnesium perhaps.

re splinting once it does start, louise had a great thread on "pooing in the animal kingdom" a few months ago. check it out.

just fyi, i was seeing a prolapse physio for a while (who served as a great therapist in the early months!). she said that they don't recommend rectocele repairs unless it is very very bad, as it doesn't really help with the problems ie like you are having--they tend to continue anyway, and if they hitch up the back wall, changes are your cyst will fill the place opening up a whole new can of worms.

I hope this helps some. keep experimenting--you will get there!

Kiki

Welcome to your new home, Ethan's Mum. My 5-y.o.'s name is Ethan. :)

E.M., I have the same problem you have. No urge, and it just builds up and builds up. I need to try the enema thing. Do you just use warm water?

Kiki, lentils do not have to be bland. :) I put turmeric in red lentils and in green/black/brown lentils I put onions, celery, kale, cilantro and garlic. Make sure you put plenty of sea salt in your soup too.

thanks ribbit--i'll try your ideas. it's not that i don't do anything with the lentils, it is just that i would love waffles and pancakes but hey, gotta do what my body needs.

i really believe that we should all be able to find a way to get our body moving w/o enemas. it's about getting our body to get the movements going that naturally should. morning one is definately the easiest--our body is most likely to respond there, so definately let us know how you get on. keep experimenting, and i'm sure you'll get there.
later in the day has been trickier for me and so many women here, but i don't think it's impossible to get this all working. for me the problem is that then everything dries out and because of the skin stuff i get horrible fissures. just healing three. argh. but i've had a week w/o a new one and much better body working, so i'm feeling hopeful. i'll continue with my morning lentils, afternoon pulses most of the time, and magnesium plus tons of water, raw fruit and veg, and when i can't eat right soaked flax. will let you know if it continues to work--and ribbit and ethan's mom, let us know if you make any progress!

Kiki

*Sigh* I don't know about Ethan's Mum, but I'm lucky if I go once a day. I have no urge. When I do, I better go RIGHT THEN or things will be much, much worse later. I'm like E.M., I think there's a big pocket there catching everything.

I know the exercises are helping me because my chronic bladder infections aren't so chronic anymore, and I am able to go poo at least every 3 days now. Sometimes every day, but then it'll only be a tiny bit and ....... well.

Hi Ethan's Mum

Yes, the other ladies are right with everything they have said. A caution though. Pulses are great as long as they are well cooked, and so have absorbed plenty of cooking water. If you have dry fibre like bran, or other forms of fibre that will absorb lots of water just remember to drink plenty of extra water because the fibre will absorb a lot of water, which is in fact sucked right out of wherever it can find it. That's how it keeps the stool soft.

You already need more water because a lot of water leaves your body in the form of breastmilk, so ensure you drink plenty. Your boobs may have settled down, but they have actually become more efficient and are producing more milk now than they were when baby was newborn.

Yes, my rectocele was causing me a great deal of grief, preventing me from pooing without splinting, for maybe the first three years of Wholewoman. I have not splinted at all for about 6 months now, so there is plenty of evidence that improvement happens. But it will take another 18 months or so until your body is fully reverted from pregnancy, so you will need to be patient.

Enemas will be your friend for a while yet, but once you learn a few more techniques for pooing smoothly I am sure you will need them less and less.

Once you get the rectocele behaving itself you might find that a cycstocele appears or gets worse, coming back to fill the gap left by the rectocele. Don't panic. You will then have "nature's pessary", so neither organ can escape down the plughole! That too will improve in time.

Louise

Louise, you said: "Your boobs may have settled down, but they have actually become more efficient and are producing more milk now than they were when baby was newborn."

I have found that to be true.

Will somebody explain "splinting" to me? I keep reading the term here, but my OB didn't mention it and I haven't seen it explained.

Splinting is the same as "pushing your rectocele back".

Info from a website containing rectocele symptoms: Constipation and trapping of the stool, making it difficult to have a bowel movement (you may have to press on the lower part of your vagina to help push the stool out of your rectum, this is called splinting).

If you feel everything is getting stuck in the "pocket" while you are pooing, use splinting to "block off" the "pocket" and this will help the rectum straighten out, making it easy for the poo to pass.